I believe it's concrete, and no, I haven't tried to cam it from the inside.

The access to it kinda sucks because it starts right in the center under my mobile home. Although I've already raised the mobile by about 12", so it's not nearly as bad as it used to be.--Wacky Races 2012!

I've had really good luck with RootX on my mom's house which has two sewer lines with problems in both. Clogging every six months no matter what I treated it with. Used the RootX over a year ago and no problems. Behind schedule as I intend to use it once a year (bought a case).

Partly -- they can drag it in until it hits one of the steel I-beam, and that's only 3 - 4ft from where my sewer line starts.

Thinking of it, I actually have a can of RootX, ( the guy who did it last time left me one ), but preferably I want something more permanent than that.

As for any treatments from the inside, is there something like a ball I can put in, say 30ft from the entrance, inflate it, and then fill up the pipe with some chemical, so it wouldn't just run through the sewer, but would seep in?--Wacky Races 2012!

Those root poisons are only worthwhile if the holes the roots are getting in through are really tiny. If the roots are really fast growing, like bamboo for example, or the pipe is actually broken, you're gonna have to either dig it up and replace at least the broken sections, or have a liner blown in $$expensive$$.

This pipe had hundreds of dollars worth of root killer put down it in the couple of years before I dug it up, both rootx and copper sulfate. Does it look like those roots minded the stuff at all? haha All that root poison was just money down the drain in this case, cracked section of clay pipe has to be replaced with PVC to prevent recurrence. Next weekend.... it's always next weekend...

I had terracotta sewer lines at my old house, and we had a similar problem with roots from a silver maple and an apple tree. I had it routed out twice over the course of five years. I started doing quarterly copper-sulfate treatments after the second time, and it was fine from then on.

My son and his wife bought the house off of us a little over three years ago, and he failed to keep up with the treatment regimen. Within two years, the roots cause another clog. This time, routing the line would not clear the clog. A camera check revealed that the pipe had totally collapsed. He finally bit the bullet and dug up the sewer line and replaced it. It turns out that it had been "patched" once before (obviously by someone that lived there before we bought the place in '86). The roots eventually caused the patch to fail, and the entire pipe collapsed.

The copper sulfate works, but you have to keep repeating the treatment.

There are services offered that will repair the pipe without digging it up (some kind of expandable sleeve, sort of like an arterial stint). My son looked into getting that done, but with the pipe being collapsed, he was told that it couldn't be done--Shine on you crazy diamond...

When you get your pipe replaced by PVC, they will normally discard the broken pipe at the bottom of the hole after the repair. They will fill in the hole with what came out, and it will be mounded up. They will tell you it will settle, and for the most part they are right about that. When they put in the PVC, expect them to add an outside cleanout to make later routing easier.

Think about how you want your grass to look there. However if the dirt they put on top is clay, that will make grass growth a problem. I suggest that you try to get the workers to put the top soil aside first, on top of a tarp to protect the grass. Put the other dirt on a different tarp. Then have them haul away part of the clay and have the top soil on top but still mounded some. If/when it settles more in a few years than the mound compensated for, add some top soil. Do not use "black dirt". That may be clay dyed black.

I had terracotta sewer lines at my old house, and we had a similar problem with roots from a silver maple and an apple tree. I had it routed out twice over the course of five years.

...

There are services offered that will repair the pipe without digging it up (some kind of expandable sleeve, sort of like an arterial stint). My son looked into getting that done, but with the pipe being collapsed, he was told that it couldn't be done

Brings back memories. 6 months after buying a house, found out a silver maple had dislodged our pipe from the city sewer system. The joint was under the middle of the road, and our responsibility. $13K later (materials were only like $320) the toilet started flushing again. The camera might be worth investing in the see what's going on. They can also figure out where the blockage is (might be clear ground which makes the repair job easier).

We had a sewer line issues about 2 years after we moved into the house. 600 bucks to remove two trees and grind their stumps, ended the root problem for good.

But our problem was more then just roots, the pipe had settled so it was level. The sewage would pool and gradually back up into the basement. 6k later, the flat spot was taken care of as well.

We wouldn't have known about the settling without a video inspection of the pipe. They also used some type of tracer that could "estimate" how deep the video head was. If I remember correctly, the guy said you wanted to see a higher number towards the house, a lower one as the pipe approached the main. Ours was fine from the house, until the trouble spot, where the depth didn't change.

They said the roots could have caused that as well. By pushing against the pipe/shifting the dirt around.--Is a person a failure for doing nothing? Or is he a failure for trying, and not succeeding at what he is attempting to do? What did you fail at today?.

I did a little poking around, and I actually found a couple of roots even visible on the surface (though just barely) in close proximity of my sewer line. So once the weather gets a little warmer and less rainy, I'll do some digging to see if I can get rid of the roots around my sewer line. I know the line starts very shallow, so there shouldn't be much digging, at least initially. I'll also look into chemical treatments, but I'd like fabricate or buy an inflatable plug first.--Wacky Races 2012!

Brings back memories. 6 months after buying a house, found out a silver maple had dislodged our pipe from the city sewer system. The joint was under the middle of the road, and our responsibility. $13K later (materials were only like $320)

Ouch, that hurts. In my case, the main sewer line is either in my backyard, or in worst case in a closed off, gravel covered alley.--Wacky Races 2012!

umm just a thought, why are you guys attempting to unclog a sewer line on your own? I thought this was not allowed and was considered tampering? shouldn't you call the city/county or regional municipality for that stuff? one guy did that here and the pipe cracked and the sewage was spilling into his soil. The city fixed it for free but they warned him that they could have easily stuck him with a repair bill in the $1000's.--Happiness is like peeing your pants... Everyone can see it, but only you can feel its Warmth!!

Ownership and responsibility for sewer repair varies widely between different municipalities.In our city the homeowner is responsible for the sewer pipe up to the city easement (which extends from the street into the lot). In other nearby cities the homeowners responsibility can be as little as the edge of the house foundation to as far as the tie-in at the sewer line in the street. In some places the rules are quite complex with the result that one homeowner gets his sewer pipe cleaned out (or repaired when necessary) by the city and his nextdoor neighbor has to hire a company at his own expense.

Sewer repairs can be 1000s even if they only involve digging up the front lawn. This quickly becomes 10s of thousands if the sewer repair includes digging up concrete drive ways, sidewalks and city streets. It can become astronomical when the city determines that the homeowner should have been aware of a long standing sewer problem and didn't fix it (with the result of extensive soil contamination).--Got some spare cpu cycles ? Join Team Helix or Team Starfire!

In some places the rules are quite complex with the result that one homeowner gets his sewer pipe cleaned out (or repaired when necessary) by the city

I've never heard of such thing. Not that it can't happen, but according to my experience cities' responsibility is usually restricted to the main lines, or goes no further than the curb.--Wacky Races 2012!